In today's environment, security consciousness with respect to travel is at an all-time high. Several additional security measures have been implemented in recent months with respect to airline and other travel in order to assure optimum safety for the traveling public. As part of same, extensive efforts are currently being undertaken to correctly identify traveling passengers and their accompanying items such as luggage, carry-ons, etc., in order to assure that security breaches will not occur; specifically, that the correct passenger will travel with the correct item and that the latter will properly arrive at the same destination as its rightful owner. Further, such measures are also intended to assure that inappropriate items are not entered into the system that might cause harm to others.
Examples of various traveler security, luggage, and ticketing systems known today are defined in the following U.S. Letters Patents:
4,247,759Nora et al4,449,186Kelly et al4,711,994Greenberg4,794,530Yukiura et al4,818,854Davies et al4,931,932Dalnekoff et al4,984,156Mekata5,051,565Wolfram5,066,853Brisson5,151,692Hirahara5,225,990Bunce et al5,253,166Dettelbach et al5,401,944Bravman et al5,724,520Goheen5,793,639Yamazaki6,044,353Pugliese, III
The above patents describe means for identifying persons according to various input information, including information from credit cards, driver's licenses, visas, etc., that the customer/traveler provides the airline or other commuter such as when he or she purchases a ticket prior to embarking.
Other means for identifying persons, including for possible travel, are identified in the following U.S. Patents:
4,298,793Melis et al4,797,542Hara5,144,680Kobayashi et al5,457,747Drexler et al5,504,321Sheldon5,680,460Tomko et al5,869,822Meadows, II et al5,883,575Ruby et al6,069,969Keagy et al6,149,056Stinson et al6,219,439 B1Burger6,263,090 B1Scott et al6,325,285 B1Baratelli6,334,575 B1Su-Hui6,389,151 B1Carr et al6,547,130 B1Shen
As described in some of the above patents, fingerprint (biometric) identification is known and some patents mention the use of cards such as those the size of credit cards used today for containing such information. Thus, biometric authentication is known as an acceptable means of identifying persons for various reasons.
According to the teachings of the present invention, there is provided a system in which biometric identification is utilized to correctly associate a certain item such as a piece of luggage with a certain individual who then plans to travel with such an item. The information obtained from the individual's fingerprint is also provided a central processing unit which the party responsible for the transportation, e.g., an airline, can readily access and thus link (compare) to the respective item or items the individual desires to travel with. Failure to link both traveler and item will result in refusal of one or both to enter the party's transportation system.
It is believed that such a system would constitute a significant advance in the art of travel and especially represent a significant enhancement in safety and security necessary today for such travel.